Josiah Cope Papers

Biography:

Biography:

Josiah Cope (1844-1906), was born in East Bradford, ChesterCounty, the son of John and Hannah Cope. Cope was educated in the district public school and the StateNormal School at Mansfield. Although the family belonged to the Society of Friends, Cope served in the Civil War as a member of the 192nd PA Regt. After the war, Josiah moved to Oxford in 1868, and in 1869 he married Josephine Sharpless, daughter of Joel and Sarah Ann Sharpless of Middletown, Delaware County. They had no children.

Josiah’s first business venture was a grocery and general merchandise business in Oxford. After about two years, he would enter the fertilizer business with his cousins, Henry Cope at Lincoln (see Business Timeline below.) Cope was a successful businessman and was active in local affairs in Oxford. He was influential in the Republican Party and received numerous request to use his influence to secure positions for people. Cope was considered a benevolent person (referenced in letter on Johnstown flood of 1889). Josiah was a member of the board of directors of the Oxford Land Improvement Co. on which board his cousin and former business partner, Henry, was a Vice President. Evidence of Josiah’s attitude towards business shows through in his papers (See notes from his primary attorney, William Doxen and also notes from a cousin, Sallie T. Pyle on behalf of her husband Joseph M. Pyle).

Josiah was involved in numerous real estate transactions; buying, selling and renting both commercial and non-commercial properties. During his business career he also was know to have sold apples, cattle, dogs, hay, hogs, honey, horses and hunting rifles.

Josiah and his brothers were avid fishermen and his brother John apparently organized numerous fishing outings (see July 1895 article in Clippings File.)

Business Timeline:

1862 - Fertilizer business was started by Henry (Josiah’s cousin). Henry has been called the Father of Lincoln University Village. The business address was Lincoln Station

1870 – Josiah joined Henry in the Fertilizer business..

1875 - Josiah purchased the business from Henry.

Business partners of Josiah were Eli H. Cope (brother) and Samuel Iveson, Jr. (who later became the “Recorder” for West Chester.)

1875 - Josiah Cope and Joel Sharpless entered into a partnership to sell coal and lumber

at Lincoln Station. This business relationship was dissolved in 1876. The business was sold to J. Thornton Fox.

Josiah had a grain, hay and stone business in Oxford.

1879 - 1881 saw the fertilizer works operating at full capacity.

1881 - There was a boiler problem at the fertilizer works necessitating replacement.

1884 - Records show growth of business in terms of numbers of banks, agents, suppliers and customers. There is some discussion of crop yields in 1884 .

1884 (October) – 1885 (June) shows a growing number of notes due with customers not able to pay, agents not able to collect and the primary lawyer (Doxen) not able to collect on the notes. The apparent reason for the debts was the weather during the wheat growing season of 1884. It apparently was a cool and dry growing season (leading to an abundance of wheat on the market). It is possible that the explosion and destruction of the Volcano Krakatoa on Aug 27, 1883 had some effect on the wheat harvest in ChesterCounty in 1884. There is an indication that local banks were failing.

1885 – Records show the growth of the business in terms of both size of manufacture and geography. Weather in early 1885 was quite cool and damp leading to mention of many colds and illnesses (leading to debt) and inability to collect payment for product sold. The later part of 1885 shows that farmers were reselling their fertilizer inventory in order to settle accounts. Delivery problems were also growing. Agents now extend to Maryland, Virginia, NorthernNew YorkState and Ohio.

1887 - Railroad cars in short supply (business brisk.)

1893 - It was discussed that business might grow if they company had a Democratic Party affiliation. It was mentioned in a letter that Sam Iveson might join the Democratic Party to affect this end. Geography covered by agents appears to be largely PA.

1887 (January –March) Correspondence shows that business appears to be improving. Notes are being paid.

1888 - Farmers were seeking other forms of fertilizer as crops other then wheat were being grown. Tobacco, corn, potatoes required specialized fertilizers or fertilizer blends. Kainite was becoming popular. Guano from a variety of sources was being requested.

1888 - Business was good but raw bone, much of it previously purchased by Josiah from Baugh & Sons of Philadelphia was becoming scarce.

Josiah established a business relationship for tankage and raw bone with both the Armour and Swift companies in Chicago.

A relationship was established in South Carolina for the purchase of rock.

Josiah manufactured the acid necessary to process the rock for fertilizer.

There is correspondence mentioning the construction of an acid tank.

As the business grew Josiah began purchasing acid directly from a manufacturer and shipping it in rail cars to the LincolnUniversity plant.

1890 - There appeared to be a shortage of supplies of rock and the acid to process it.

1890 - There appeared to be a slowdown in business due to weather early in the year.

Wet weather created conditions that prevented the transport of materials and crops.

Railroads provided fast and reliable transportation of both products and raw materials.

They were also an efficient carrier of the US Mail.

1891- Railroad cars appear to be suddenly in short supply.

1893 - Two occurrences created interesting business conditions.

A hurricane known as the “Sea Islands Hurricane” hit South Carolina and disrupted rock supplies.

One of the worst depressions in America occurred. This affected the fruit growing industry in Maryland.

Reading Railroad, a major eastern line, went into receivership. That collapse was soon magnified by the failures of hundreds of banks and businesses dependent upon the Reading and other railroads.

The stock market reacted with a dramatic plunge. Fearing further collapse, European investors pulled their funds from the United States, but depression soon gripped the other side of the Atlantic as well.

1877 – 08/10 Henry formed a business partnership with Mr. Passmore and continued in the fertilizer business in competition with Josiah (From Edward Jones note in newspaper clippings collection).

1887 - 1895 there is ample evidence in the correspondence of Henry competing with Josiah in fertilizer sales.

1896 - Henry was in the business of selling Carriages, Buggies and Spindle Wagons.

Collection Scope:

Collection Scope:

This collection consists of (primarily) inbound business and personal correspondence.

There are also business ledgers, or daybooks of both Josiah Cope and Henry Cope.

Collection Arrangement:

The correspondence in the collection is organized in a spreadsheet by type of business or personal relationship.

A database is also available that contains listings of the correspondence.

Every piece of correspondence was read.

Categories were established based on the type of relationship that existed between Josiah Cope and the business entity or individual.

Non-Business relationship/correspondence were categorized as “Personal”

Categories that exist in the spreadsheet and database:

Banks Banks that Josiah or his companies did business with

Railroad Railroads that Josiah did business with

Telegraph Communications companies

Post office Post office communication

Board of Agriculture, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Correspondence from the PA Board of AG

Newspaper Newspaper correspondence

Attorney Attorneys that Josiah had a relationship with

Insurance Insurance company communication

Supplier Suppliers of goods and services to Josiah

Customer Direct customer relationships

Agent Sales agents for Josiah

Personal Non-Business correspondence

Once a business or personal relationship was established, further correspondence is not listed in detail, unless;

a. A change in the relationship occurred or

b. A trend of some sort was determined by querying the database

One of the trends that was examined by queries of the database for example was that which describes the apparent weather related overabundance in the wheat crop of 1884 which lead to many bank failures and debt related situations.

There is numerous correspondence requesting information regarding becoming a sales agent for Josiah.

In describing this correspondence I have used the phrase “Terms and Conditions of Agent Program” (or T’s & C’s).

We have no knowledge if a formalized set of rules existed in terms of sales agents, however we can tell from the correspondence that there was a rather larger network ofsuch sales agents and therefore some guidelines must have existed...

The correspondence is arranged in folders by month contained in boxes by year as follows: